First Unreal Tournament Images Disappoint

Epic Games is hard at work bringing Unreal Tournament, the next installment of the classic Unreal series, to PC and Mac. Today, Epic released the first batch of concept art for the game, showing characters, weapons, environments and enemies.

Five of the images shown off on Epic's Unreal blog show human character models, including one entitled “Sapphire,” which may be the name of one of the game’s characters. Some characters wear sleek, form-fitting armor while others are decked out in heavy battle-suits.

Two shots of reptilian characters are shown, presumably representing series regulars, the Skaarj. With muscular bodies, massive tusks and a thick, powerful tail, these humanoid beasts appear to be more hearty and tough than humans.

A prototype of the Shock Rifle is shown in first-person view, previewing the look of the game’s futuristic arsenal. We’re also treated to a couple of looks at the world of Unreal Tournament thanks to artist’s renderings of high-tech interior and exterior environments.

Epic also revealed a few game modes for Unreal Tounrament. The game will launch with Team Deathmatch, but will eventually add Capture the Flag and Onslaught modes over time.

While it’s still very early in the development of Unreal Tournament, the images we’ve been shown today are underwhelming at best. Characters look uninspired and dated, with simplistic armor and cheesy sci-fi design elements like one-piece visors, boob armor and mohawks. The original Unreal Tournament was released in 1999, but that’s no reason to continue using 15 year old designs in a modern game.